Memoirs of a Bible Smuggler

By Jeana Kendrick

Memoirs of a Bible Smuggler by Jeana Kendrick is the story of a young Texas couple who helped smuggle thousands of Bibles to persecuted Christians behind the Iron Curtain. It is a true story set during the Cold War, an era in the East Bloc when many who resisted the Communists’ godless decrees faced prison or death. Many brave and daring persecuted Christians were willing to risk all for Christ.

A naïve thirty-year-old housewife in the East Texas piney woods, Jeana Kendrick dreamed of being a Bible smuggler. She and her husband Jeff, a building contractor, began praying an extra hour in the evenings. Before long, Door of Hope International (DOHI) President Paul Popov asked Jeff to remodel the mission’s Austrian base of operations for covert Bible deliveries.

The Kendricks arrived in Spittal on der Drau, Austria in the early spring of 1980. The DOHI base there was thirty minutes from both Italy and the former Yugoslavia. While Jeff remodeled the base, Jeana refurbished the interior and prayed for the chance to smuggle Bibles and meet the suffering faithful. God answered her prayer. The couple smuggled Bibles into Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria that summer. Popov said they were naturals and asked them to return for a full year the following spring.

Back in Texas, six weeks before their departure for Europe, a falling tree struck Jeana. She suffered a compression fracture and was briefly hospitalized. Nevertheless, the couple left as planned.

After several years, the Kendricks were appointed co-directors of DOHI’s literature distribution into Eastern Europe. They developed a network of contacts behind the Iron Curtain and teams of trained couriers to deliver Bibles. Carpenters, bankers, nurses, stockbrokers and others used their vacations annually to smuggle thousands of Bibles.

Confronted by challenges like the RV busted at the Romanian border or their own arrests in Russia, the Kendricks rejoiced at God’s continued deliverance. Once border guards drilled into a camper wall between two rows of Bibles, hitting insulation instead of paper. One afternoon, the Kendricks gave away the last of their money, one thousand dollars. An hour later they learned that someone had anonymously deposited five thousand dollars into their bank account. God was faithful.

When the Iron Curtain came tumbling down, the Kendricks were there to test the new freedoms and to help. During their thirteen years as missionaries, the many miracles, obstacles overcome and victories won, enriched their lives and those of countless others.